in case someone is wondering: no, kmess doesn't work these latest days. Looks like it isn't an upgrade problem but a bug triggered because something changed in Microsoft servers, we are working on fixing the package on Debian.

Yes, MSN (normally) works swimmingly. My friend in Chile hadn't even heard of Gmail and I'm not particularly anxious to set up a Facebook account. The advantage of Gmail is that it supports webcams for non-Windows users but apart from that I prefer Kopete.